Scaborough also provides a second version of Nine Pound Hammer song [p.220-221]:

WORK-SONG

Nine-pound hammer, nine-pound hammer, nine-pound hammer,
Can't kill me, can't kill me, can't kill me
Nine-pound hammer can't kill me!
Oh, my papa and my mamma think I'm dead, think I'm dead,
Oh, my papa and my mamma think I'm dead!

Who shot Ida? who shot Ida? who shot Ida?
In de laig?
Who shot Ida? who shot Ida? who shot Ida?
In de laig?

-snip-
Scarborough writes that Joesph Turner of Hollins' Virginia sent this variant to her [Scaborough sources were White people she either knew or who heard about her interest in this subject and then sent her examples for her book that they remembered or had heard.

The "Who shot Ida" verse is typical of the inclusion of topical information into already 'established' folk songs. This practice can also be found in Blues, Calypso, and other forms of folk music from the African Diaspora.